So we have three leopard geckos, all housed separately. 1 female, 1 male, and 1 we think is male. Our female is the oldest but still not a year old. Unlike the two males who are walking normally, her walk is still and slow. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and gets Repashy with the d3 in it and has had the same care as the two males. Also, she is not the greatest hunter. She misses a lot and then gets frustrated and refuses to eat when she can catch them. So, my two questions are:
1. Why is she moving so stiffly? She is so young!
2. Why is she having a much harder time hunting than the two males?
My male is pretty slow like yours. I give mine dubias crickets and supers. He misses and gets frustrated from time to time as well. I think it's just their nature. But if you continue to see sluggishness, and are worried, ask a vet.
Thanks, Chaos, but the problem is not the speed of the supers, but that she just doesn't reach down enough to grab them. I think she's far-sighted.
We did, however, find a way that works. Typically, unlike my two males, she refused to eat off of the tongs. But, what my boyfriend discovered last night and I found to be true tonight when feeding her is that we let her chase the super around for a little bit, make sure it got her interest, and then hold the very end of it by the tweezers and a little off the ground and she gobbles it up real fast. I think having the tweezers just out of sight helps.
She's also moving a lot better. Though, I've noticed when I go to scoop her up, unlike me males, she tries to flip onto her back. I don't let her, but she tries.
My boy can not catch crickets at all. He also moves very slow. I have always thought this was because he was missing a foot.. but now that I hear your stories maybe not. I had a large girl and another smaller male. The girl was a fierce hunter. She was fast.. and thats probably why the male that was housed with her was a little smaller. The boy with the missing foot I kept alone obviously. I have given up trying to feed him crickets.. they usually just chill in there with him and end up getting big enough to grow wings.. then they get noisy... its not fun. I was feeding him wax worms for a while.. but have switched to meal worms because I was worried about the fat content.
Anyway.. I guess some are just slower than others.